4) Cover and cook until tender and translucent, about 12 minutes on medium high. Radishes are famous for sweating lots of liquid.

5) Using the same wok, Add the batter and stir them until slightly thickens, Pour mixture into a well-greased glass container and steam for 50-60 minutes on medium-high heat. Remove from heat and set aside to cool before sprinkling spring onions then chucking it into the fridge to ogle at the next morning.

Monday, July 21, 2014

To be fair, this was pilfered from recipe #234 from Hamlyn's Cakes and Baking that I had bought in 1991, with slight alterations, of course. (If there weren't any alterations, I'd be sending you to the Hamlyn site.)

The first time I tried this recipe was on 21 August 1993, before my son was born. Probably for the International Fellowsheep Young Adults' Group back when I lived in Clarens, Switzerland. This is a quicky-feel-good recipe for the no-fuss, no-mess baking guru.

Then again, if you were a real baking guru, you wouldn't be reading this. No duh.

Add glutinous flour into a pot with 2 cups of water on medium heat. Keep stirring until it becomes a translucent "paste". Cool a bit then add the gochugaru, fish sauce, crushed garlic, cut ginger and sugar.

Take the cleaned and drained cabbage and put it in the largest mixing bowl or pot. Sprinkle sesame seeds and the chives before adding the finished "paste" which should have been cooling down until it's warm. Massage it into the cabbage well.

Leave to ferment for a day in summer room temperature before refrigerating the next day.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

It seems appropriate
To describe my restlessness
Like a sleepwalker desperate
To lie down
But finds herself walking unconscious.

It seems appropriate
To be thoughtful and gracious
Yet, I cannot find it within myself
To extend kindness
Though it is not asked of me.

It seems appropriate
To expect my Father to help
My ingrown awkwardness
My violent feelings-
My exasperation of self.

It seems appropriate
To want nothing more than healing
Nothing less than health
At the quickest instant
Her words to lose their affect
Words to lose their sting
Words to lose their meaning
Yet I cling, or they cling to me
Like burrs of a Velcro fruit.

It seems appropriate
To cry foul, or at least air the room
For it is still with musty ill-kept silence
There seems nothing to do,
Nothing to say,
No where to start,
No place to heal,
No one to bridge the gap,
Nothing more to add.
There is only dullness
And on my part, elusive waiting
Wanting to get away,
Feeling wronged,
Not getting out
Nor staying in.

I have so much to say
Yet cannot say it.
I have so much I wish to ask her
But trust not to speak my mind.
I have been desperate to understand
Yet have been so misunderstood.
I have longed for opportunities
That now, feels stale from waiting.
I want to be a friend,
But don’t know how.
I want to befriend,
But am not taught how.
I am upset by my lack of knowing
what is simply
Appropriate.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

I do my best thinking on the treadmill
these days. Maybe it’s the perspiration or the endorphins that gives my
spiritual cortex a keenness I don't expect when idling. I was drawn to the
passage in Matthew 26:39-44 when God refused to let the cup of suffering pass
from Jesus’ lips.

Three times, Jesus
asked “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I
drink it, may your will be done.”

Denial is an ugly noun, made uglier for the
inherent meaning it carries- the refusal of the request. I’m not talking about
the asking for something fence-sittingly good or a downright dumb request. I’m talking
about a vehemently good request like the asking for healing for a friend dying of
cancer or a plea for relief for someone going through hell and high waters. For
Jesus to ask it of the Father strikes me an odd thing. Didn’t Jesus know that
this was the reason for which he was sent to earth? As if that wasn’t strange
enough, he asked it three times. Was it for our benefit that he asked?

“No” is a word I do not like to use. I’m a
yes-person because I’ve always thought myself a positive individual but here
I’m compelled to rethink the positivity of “no”. God said “no” even though God
did not express it in words. It was clear he meant no since Jesus drank from
the cup of God’s wrath (Jeremiah 25:15). Jesus wasn’t thinking about himself.
Jesus was thinking what drinking it would fully, finally and perfectly
accomplish. Defeat death in its totality.

Recently in my life, in my waiting on God
to direct me to a teaching job and international homestays, I’ve sensed it a
“no” throughout. I’ve sent out 12 resumes since Feb 22 and put up ads for an
available room to rent to schools all around North Surrey. While God had
blessed me with so many homestays before and jobs even before I finished
school, this time I’m challenged to grow in my faith. The power of no is
actually going to affect me positively. It’s already started. I’ve sensed God
saying “no” to many things in my life before but His “no” is going to
accomplish something in me that no “yes” is ever going to.

So, today being Saturday while Jesus once
lay in the tomb between death and resurrection, I await tomorrow’s victory. I’m
learning to accept, be thankful for and to enjoy the nos in my life as God’s
guarantee for the greater good that I know He is planning for me. Oh for Sunday to arrive! Christ is Risen!

Monday, May 14, 2012

When our homes are muddied and untidy,
Let's praise the Lord in His Sanctuary
When you smell something sickly in the oven,
Praise him in His mighty Heaven!
When our little kidlets refuse to shower,
Praise Him for His acts of power
As mums we know, (how we know!) our weaknesses,
Praise Him for His surpassing greatnesses
Ignored, slighted, resigned we will get,
Praise Him with the sound of trumpet
When they speak unkindly, indifferent, full of ire,
Praise Him still with harp and lyre
Dwell not on his laziness nor her lying,
Praise Jesus with timbrel and dancing
Cease the endless worry throughout the night,
The better praise is with strings, flute and pipe
This passing phase will soon come to settle,
By praising Him with clash of cymbals,
Praising Him with resounding cymbals.
The sounds of our praise will wake our deafened child to God.
Let all struggling moms who has breath give praise to her Lord.
Look out you, dark enemy of our soul,
For He, worthy of praise, is our goal.